NASA is stepping up efforts to attract commercial operators to its facilities in Florida, as the government-funded space program is facing an uncertain future. Video courtesy of AFP.

This transcript has been automatically generated and may not be 100% accurate.

I ... the Kennedy Space Center has been America's gateway to space but decades now the future of space exploration hinges on its radical transformation ... with the shuttle's retirement this year private industry instead of canasta is expected to take the lead in carrying cargo and astronauts into orbit ... the U S space agency is trying to attract commercial operators to use its facilities which will Michael went up to the last launch scheduled for June for ... thirty years we've had ... one major ... Alukos are the cases are for watching in that the special program was approved on when switching to do at that point is ... diversify your customer base we dislike any this is what the the ... promotion offering to pay taxes already using the Kennedy Space Center recently launching a test capsule into orbit and bringing it back to us ... it's one of several companies competing to carry missions to the International Space Station ... it's appropriate that that the turnover the private sector because ... that is America's franc ... and to allow the the the marketplace today drive down ... prices driving efficiencies ... of that's what's necessary to make our program a move for right now ... with an estimated nine thousand jobs on the mind when the shuttle program ends returned to NewEnterprise to displace Coast is an urgent times governments ... state officials say they want to move the region away from a reliance on that I believe that the future this basin is in our allies in its diversification ... if you look at global space revenues ... there are approximately two hundred and seventy billion dollars ... over sixty eight percent of that volume ... is commercial activity ... people will learn how to use space ... to make money ... in the seventy five million dollars in state and federal cash is being pumped into expanding commercial aerospace through infrastructure investment business incentives and workforce training ... the bathroom remodel but not everyone is optimistic those efforts will pay off former NASA engineer Charlie Malas who runs the Space Museum thinks that are likely to private companies alone can prevent massive job losses in commercial market here today already and the people ... now they can do they need they probably want some people ... certainly not in the numbers that we might anticipate ... lowest you can use the news for the mass of workers and families who recently gathered for a memorial to the victims of the Challenger disaster ... the future is full of uncertainty ... is needed to weather the end of the moon missions in nineteen seventy two ... this time it's preparing to charge a very different calls online asset could be just one of many high as in the race to space supremacy ... we are reminded ... in season